In spite of concerns that expats voting abroad on Wednesday would be
hampered by a supposed government miscommunication, the department of
international relations and cooperations (Dirco) said it had received no
complaints from any of its embassies or consulates abroad.

“Of those embassies that have now closed, none have reported any
problems [with voting]. Some are still open, but we have received no complaints
from those either,” said Dirco spokesperson Clayson Monyela on Wednesday
evening.

More than 26 000 expats in more than 116 countries registered to vote abroad.

In 2009, the Constitutional Court ruled that expats could vote so long as they notified the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of their intention to do so.
This followed a challenge by the Freedom Front Plus.

“People voted in large numbers.
So far, voting has gone smoothly,” said Monyela. He added that the total number of registered voters abroad that had actually voted would only be released by the IEC after the release of the results.

According
to the
Times, some registered voters complained that government had not informed
them timeously of all the steps they were required to take in order to vote
abroad. Monyela said that if voters had encountered problems, this was probably
because they failed to fill in the VEC10 form, a requirement for voting
abroad.

Yet
some voters claimed that they were only alerted to this requirement late in the
process.

A South African living in Zambia, who requested anonymity, and six of her friends, were unable
to vote on Wednesday.

“I’m more confused than ever about what we were meant to do in
the first place.
I registered at the South African Embassy when we were supposed
to. There was a sign up saying that if you have ever registered in South Africa
you didn’t have to register in Zambia again. I asked the guy to please just
register me in Zambia anyway as this made no sense. Filled in a form, and
I was told I was registered, even had a little paper saying so.

“Then
we heard rumours beginning of the week about a VEC10 form that needed to be
filled in online and that we couldn’t vote if we didn’t register online and
filled in this form. None of this communicated to me or any of my friends here
in Lusaka,” she told the
Mail & Guardian.

She said she was told this was the fault of the IEC. The IEC was not
immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

The
deadline for submitting the VEC10 form was March 12, while Wednesday was the
only day set aside for expat voting.

However,
other voters said the registration and voting process was easy.

Michaela Baker, a South African in Sydney, Australia, told the
M&G that voting was “worth it” in spite of the nine-hour trip she had to take to cast her ballot. The only voting station in Australia was in Canberra.

“The
process was pretty straightforward. The High Commission in Canberra were lovely
– everyone was very friendly. There was almost no queue. On the whole, I found
it a joyful experience. I had a nine-hour round trip on the train to get there,
plus travel between my place and Sydney station and Canberra station and the
High Commission and had to take a day off work, but am really glad I did
it,” Baker said.

In London, voters waited in line for more than two hours on Wednesday afternoon.

According
to the IEC, more than 116 missions across the globe would host voters on Wednesday,
with the total process spanning 33 hours. Voting began in Australia and will
end in Los Angeles at 6am on Thursday, South African time.

The
largest voting station was London, where more than 9 000 voters registered,
followed by Dubai, where just over 1 000 registered. Just a single voter was
registered in Guinea Bissau, the IEC said.